For him completely. But it was a big moment. And now in terms of what happens, will really define the end of his presidency. It wasnt a grand slam. You know what it wasnt a gettysburg address. When you talk about the middle east you found that words mean very little. Soaring rhetoric means little. Threats meaning very little. Saying things on the campaign trail means very little. This is going to be tough, a tough business. And to borrow a quote from a Previous Administration it will be a long, hard slog. Last night i let out a big sigh as i was watching the pollsters and pundits and everybody refighting the iraq war from 2003 talking about moving forward. Only time will tell. Ill say this and you know willie i hate to say i told you so because im not that kid. Im not that kid in the class. But what did i say when he went in and talked about humanitarian assistance . I said he was cracking up in the door and everybody was bitching and mooning how it wasnt enough. A couple of days later he said he would arm the kurds. Everybody was moaning and said it wasnt enough. The president step by step has opened the door wide per the American People has caught up. They want us to go over and destroy isis. Our arab friends and enemies, most of them hatch caught up. So were going to talk about that. We have so much to talk about that over the next three hours. I got to get willies reaction first to what happened. Real quickly. Lets talk about this because its going to explode. Then well get back to the president s speech. The nfl is asking a former fbi director to lead an independent investigation how they handled the ray rice case. Robert muller is charge of the probe which will look at how the nfl pursued and handled evidence including Surveillance Video that showed rice assaulting his then fiancee at a casino. The announcement came hours after the Associated Press reported that a Law Enforcement source claimed he sent the video to the nfl three months ago. The complete video. The ap said the unidentified official played a brief voice mail from an nfl office where a woman said quote, youre right, its terrible. A high ranking official at the nfl tells tmz sports the ap story is wrong. And that quote no one at the league saw the video until monday. Meanwhile the Washington Post reports that nfl commissioner Roger Goodell has no plans to resign in the wake of the scandal. Goodell has insisted the nfl tried unsuccessfully on multiple occasions to obtain the video earlier from police. The baltimore ravens, rices former team will host the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight amidst this entire controversy. Ap reporter will come on. You cant begin to talk about how bad this is for the nfl, how bad Roger Goodell look, how bad the ravens look. This is a multibillion dollar industry and they are screwing this up. Commissioner goodell is adamant. That he or no one in the nfl saw this story. So when this story broke there was a gasp. The nfl came out and said this is not true we didnt see the tape. But if anyone in the lead office saw the tape have a massive problem and could lead up to the commissioners office. He may not have seen it so that he can go out and say to cbs news i havent seen the tape and be honest about that but it looks like someone in this league has seen the tape. If its true its the end of the line for a lot of people. They got the caller i. D. Connected with the message to this Law Enforcement officer. Hiring the former director of the fbi is in and of itself that they blew the whole investigation. What if he goes back and finds that they did see the tape, someone in the nfl saw the tape. It casts aside and puts a shadow over the investigation that the nfl initially conducted and a bit of a sham frankly. What did you think of the president last night, willie . Ill leave the performance to you guys but the content of it was pretty amazing. A president whose entire candidacy was predicated on getting us out of wars. Last night he announced to the country that it was a war. Were going in to wipe someone out. He said yesterday the last time we went in to wipe someone out was 13 years ago. 13 years ago. Today is the day, obviously, fraught with a lot of heavy memories. You have to put the past 13 years all together. We began this war against terrorism 13 years ago and were being pulled right back in. It was striking to me he used that phrase, you threaten america youll find no safehaven. Like george w. Bush. Isis is not threatening america not directly. Not yet. It will if left unchecked long enough. It threatens americas interests in the middle east, clearly but that phrase is double. This is saying this is part of the continuum, this is going back to 9 11 and this is how im justifying this. But still in terms of actual threat to american soil is different. The president announced a four part plan in his strategy including air strikes for syria, for the first time in syria, additional strikes in iraq. President obama is also asking congress to approve training and arming of Syrian Rebels who oppose both isis and the assad government. With polls showing strong support for increased action the president is vowing to hunt down the group that killed two american journalists. I know Many Americans are concerned about these threats. Tonight, i want to you know that the United States of america is meeting them with strength and resolve. Our objective is clear, we will degrade and ultimately destroy isil. Through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy. This is American Leadership at its best. We stand with people who fight for their own freedom and we rally other nations on behalf of our Common Security and common humanity. It will take time to eradicate a cancer like isil and any time we take military action there are risks involved especially to the service men and women who carry out these missions. I want the American People to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in iraq and afghanistan. It will not involve american combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This Counterterrorism Campaign will be waged through a steady relentless effort to take out isil wherever they exist using our air power. And our support for partners forces on the ground. Well be looking at everything he said throughout the show. The president said he would send close to 500 more members of the military to iraq to work with iraqi and kurdish forces. We already sent quite a few. Lets bring in David Ignatius from the Washington Post. We heard the complaints last night he shouldnt compare what hes been doing to whats happening in somalia and yemen. He was doing too much, not doing enough. Break it down for us. What was last nights speech all about . What did the president , what did you get from last nights speech. Not politically but strategically. I think you saw a somber, very straightforward president doing something that body language is telling you he doesnt want to do. David, we got a mic issue right now. Were going to fix in the washington bureau. We got some hamsters on the wheel in the back and one of them, i think it was mor tee gott sick last night. Mort always throws up. Its interesting, i think the hamsters go on in the back. The president stop. Can i finish. The labor day blowout for the hamsters. Crazy. They are still throwing up a week later. Well fix the wheel, the whole generator will go. Down think its interesting the president its fascinating. Go ahead. Dont you think its interesting that the president said this would not look like the wars in iraq and afghanistan and doesnt that box him in in some way as we have David Ignatius back. He wants to be boxed in. The president may dont boxed in but i dont think this president is boxed in any anything. Hes not boxed in by the congress or the press. He doesnt give a damn what the editorial pages say. This president will do whatever it takes to kill isis because the American People have made it very clear with these polls that are staggering in this Terror Threat. I certainly think youre right hes not boxed in. This was an open ended statement. Theres no end time limit on this and the president s advisers are clear this is a battle wageed into the next administration. Hes not going to congress for a specific new authorization to support this. He says hes happy to have congressional support if they want to pass a resolution, fine but hes chosen to do it by the appropriations process which is unusual. I dont think that he feels forced by political factors. Really whats happening on the ground is leading him to do the thing that he really didnt want to do. Can i ask you something about the president says there arent going to be boots on the ground. Hes talk being of course about military. But, should we not expect special forces, special ops, people connected with the cia to have a very heavy presence in there . They are already there, joe. They are there in iraq. And they are there in jordan training the Syrian Opposition. Thats the cia program. President is talk about changing that into an overt program where the training would to be done by the u. S. Military. Well see how that flies. But its certain that many of the 475 people who are being sent in in the president s announcement last night will be special Operations Forces who will be able to advise and assist. How deeply they will be embedded in the iraqi units isnt clear. One part is well trade a Sunni National guard in iraq thats a decentralized Iraqi Security force. Who is going to do that training. Who will be with them as they go into tikrit and mosul and falluja. Not only if speech but whats happening in the wake of the speech. Willie today in saudi arabia, john kerry will be in saudi arabia. You have the saudis, egypt, jordan, members of the arab league, United Arab Emirates who has been leading the way. Moderate arab states will have a conference on how to push back against the threat of isis across the middle east. Weve seen a lot of things in 13 years, right . We havent seen this. This is a new phase. A line has been crossed by isis. Its finally got moderate arab states who have been whispering to american president s for years, hey were with you even if our staterun newspapers are going to call you like, you know, dogs. This is an important step. Yeah. The president talked yesterday, King Abdullah in saudi arabia. Saudi arabia has agreed to host the training and development of these forces that were going to be working with on the ground and the president talked last night about building a coalition of nations to help this fight against isis. This is not our fight alone. American power can make a decisive difference but we cant do for iraqis what they can do for themselves nor can we take the place of arab partners. Thats why i insisted additional u. S. Action depended on iraqis forming an inclusive government which they have now done in recent days. So tonight with a new Iraqi Government in place and following consultations with allies abroad and congress at home, i can announce that america will lead a Broad Coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Thats so key given where we are. Last night nbc chief news correspondent Richard Engel casted some doubt on the president s assertions that the United States can deal with isis the same way it dealt in kwle men and somalia. Its an oversimplification of the problem. Here we have a large group, tens of thousands of fighters that control the size of maryland. They control an area that has 8 Million People living inside of it. Its much more akin to regime change than it is to waiting back, picking targets with allied forces. These sunni villages that are now with isis are afraid of the iraqi army. They dont want the iraqi army to come in to their villages. We talk about a partner on the ground that we are going to link up with to rid iraq of isis. Well that partner on the ground in many cases is a reason that people support isis in this country. A lot of people drawing doubts that we can compare whats going on in somalia and yemen to what we have to do in syria and iraq. Richard is absolutely right. This is much more complicated. Its not iraq and afghanistan wars but not somalia and yemen either. Somewhere in between. What obama didnt address is how do you fight in syria. Youre saying youll arm these rebels. Okay, that assad you have been fighting you wont fight him for a while. Youll fight these other bad guys. By the way, assad will be trying to destroy both of you. As soon as you knock out isis, assad will come in and fill the vacuum. Well probably be gone. Well help you but only help you if you do this thing. David ignatius, another person weighing in how outrageous the comparison was, charles krauthammer. He said this looks like afghanistan in the early phases where you have special op guys riding around afghanistan on horses. He said it wasnt a bad approach when you consider al qaeda in afghanistan was blown to bits in 100 days. What are we looking at here . I focus on the president s basic rubric for this policy. Hes seeking to degrade and ultimately destroy isis. The degrade part is what well see in the coming months. The ultimately destroy part is years off. Theres a way in which u. S. Air power as weve seen can be effective in degrading an insurgent adversary like. The problem is that the use of air power without sufficient resources on the ground leads to ever more fragmented failed state situation. And the issue for iraq is from a real Iraqi Government that can come in to these empty spaces and begin to govern. In syria, is there an opposition that can move towards governing and because youre going to need something on the ground to complement u. S. Air power. I want to talk about that with david later. I talked to the white house yesterday who an official said they believe they got an iraqi leader that will have sunnis that have a buy in. They understand it starts right there. It doesnt start with dropping bombs on syria and iraq. It starts by having a Political Leadership in place in baghdad that can get sunnis reinvested in that government. A lot of ground to cover. Still ahead on morning joe former mayor of new york city, Rudy Giuliani will be with us commemorating the 13th anniversary of the attacks on Lower Manhattan. Hell be with us live in our 7 00 hour. A new report claims that the nfl had the second inside elevator video of real estate rice pumpging his fiancee. Well speak to the reporter who broke that story. New calls for burger king to ditch their move to canada. Saturday night live announces this seasons guest hosts. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. 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Can this decadent, fruittop pastry with indulgent streusel crumbles be from. Fiber one . Fiber one streusel. Available at walmart. You saw what was going on between jay carney and senator john mccain. His first day on the job. Went after it. Mr. Carney. They supposedly really good friends. Sources say they are long time friends. Which made the whole mr. Carney thing was it theater . Senator mccain came looking for a fight. He was looking for blood. Lets refight the past 47 years. This young lady, shes saying the other night at the tuesdays children fundraiser remember that, her voice. Lost her dad. Is the voice of an angel. She was 9 when her dad died in 9 11. I hope we can get that audio. She sang god bless america. Willie, daily news. National football liars. This is such a disaster for the nfl. Something that they should have handled straightforward a couple of days ago. As we talked about a few minutes ago the Associated Press report that the second tape was viewed by someone perhaps not commissioner goodell but someone inside the nfl office back in april. This is devastating. Lets get to some other papers. The New York Times, various uk leaders travel to scotland on wednesday in a final plea to have scots remain in the union. Its important everyone knows the scale of the choice being made that if scotland votes to separate itself from the United Kingdom its voting irreversibly to elevate itself from the institutions that we built together. The historic vote could end scotlands 307 year union with england. Scots will vote on the issue next thursday. In an unrelated story, several u. S. Senators are calling for burger king to ditch plans to move to kentucky. Democrat dick durbin says it will deny employees programs that rely on funding. He was joined by several other senators. The fast food chain announced its plans to purchase tim hor